Deborah and the Promise of a Deliverer
For Meditation
From Nan Clarke
This Sunday we’ll be looking at the Old Testament book of Judges. As Rick noted last week, the author of Judges characterizes this time as one where “there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes”. Judges is a surprisingly violent book and challenging to read. It represents a low point in Israel’s early history.
Deborah is the fourth of twelve judges that God raises up to deliver his people from foreign invaders. She is a woman of faith, strength and courage. She is the only judge who does not appear to have a fatal flaw. You’ll find the historical account of her leadership in Judges chapter 4. The story has a surprising twist at the end when a woman named Jael murders Sisera, the leader of the army who has brutally oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. For obvious reasons we will not read that section of the text on Sunday, as our focus will be on Deborah. I would encourage you to read the whole chapter though, and also to read Chapter 5, which is a poetic and emotional retelling of the story.
As you read the text ask yourself the following questions: How are we like the Israelites in the book of Judges? How are we not like them? What difference does it make that we stand in a very different place in God’s story – after the death and resurrection of Jesus and Pentecost. Do you see any markers in the Deborah’s story that might point to where the larger story of God’s redemption is going? On Sunday we’ll be exploring how this story points to a much needed but also very different kind of deliverer.
Judges 4:1–10, 12–17, 23–24
1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead. 2 So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim. 3 Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.
4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”
8 Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”
9 “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 Sisera summoned from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the Lord has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him. 15 At Barak’s advance, the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.
16 Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left. 17 Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.
23 On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. 24 And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.